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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Francisco Sionil Jose is the son

of Antonio Jose an Aglipayan minister, and Sofia
Sionil. He is married to Maria Teresa Jovellanos
with whom he has seven children. He had to help
support his family at a young age raising hogs and
working as a farm laborer. He studied at the
Rosales Elementary School, Far Eastern University
High School, and the University of Santo Tomas
(UST). After WWII he took pre-medicine courses at
the Manila College of Pharmacy and Dentistry,
then at the UST, shifting to liberal arts later on. He
was editor-in-chief of the university paper The
Varsitarian .

Francisco Sionil José’s novels, short stories and

non-fiction works highlight the social
underpinnings, class struggles and colonial history of Filipino society.

He is best known for his epic work, The Rosales Saga – five novels encompassing a hundred years
of Philippine history, painting a vivid documentary of Filipino life.

Since starting his writing career in 1949, José has written more than 35 books, translated into more
than 20 languages and published worldwide. He has also been involved with international cultural
organizations, notably International P.E.N., the world association of poets, playwrights, essayists
and novelists, whose Philippine Center he founded in 1958.

José has worked as a journalist, and has founded a bookshop, publishing house and art gallery. In
1966, he established Solidarity, a monthly magazine of “current affairs, ideas and the arts,” whose
contributors included Southeast Asia’s leading writers, poets, statesmen, scholars and political
activists.

According to Prof. Edwin Thumboo of the National University of Singapore, “Ever the visionary,
Frankie saw Southeast Asia as a region well ahead of the politicians, political scientists and
economists. Solidarity did more to advance the understanding of Southeast Asia and the sense of
it as a region, than any other journal.”

Recognitions of José’s literary works and his influence on the Philippines and Asia include the
Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Arts (1980), Philippine National
Artist (2001), and the Pablo Neruda Centennial Award (2004), and Officer in the French Order of
Arts and Letters (2014).

Now in his nineties, he continues to be a prolific writer and relentless voice against social injustice
and national amnesia. Almost daily, he still climbs the three flights of steps to his writing alcove
at the Solidaridad Bookshop in Manila.
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CHARACTERS
_Rojo Family_

Maria Ermita Rojo (Ermi)

A very charming, beautiful, and innocent lady at once who lives in an orphanage since she was
born until she reaches ten. She is the illegitimate daughter of one of the Rojos who are prominent
in the country for they are elites. Above all these, she is considered as a product of “shame” and
ended up the same.

She is considered as very important in the novel for the story focuses on her life, how the life so
cruel to her and how she able to surpass it. Despite of being revengeful, she continues to live to
search for her own identity and value as human.

A fabulous prostitute whose price is as high as a mountain that only those in high rank officials
can afford. She sold her virginity to one of the richest men in Asia for ten thousand bill.

She is a bright woman who knows varied languages which gives her advantage in her conversation
with different prominent individuals and her this confidence and spice in her personality.

Conchita Rojo-Collier (Conching)

A beautiful woman who lives in Padre Faura, Ermita with her sister. She has the quality of being stubborn
from which Ermi inherits. She lost her parents on 1941 and leave them mansion and connections.

It was during the war when she was raped by a Japanese soldier and at the same time fell in love with
Captain John Collier whom she got married soon. She bears Ermi at orphanage and leaves her there
without the knowledge of her husband.

She lives at America after giving birth to Ermi and never comes back at Manila. She remains devastated
when her daughter seduced her husband and reveals her past as her wife’s daughter to a Japanese soldier.

Felicitas ROJO (Fely)

Unlike Conching, she had Chinese eyes probably from their mother who was part Chinese. She is
even more beautiful than Conching from which her sister envied her of her creamy complexion.
She is being pursued by Americans in High Commissions even before her debut in Manila.

She got married by a prominent sportsman who after their wedding “accidentally shot himself”
and died. She is really well-known for being a rich socialite Rojo. She also experienced the three
years of unremitting Occupation and was taken care of General MacArthur after war licked Manila.

She is the one who sends Ermi at Assumption to have her college but never gave her cash to
spend. She stands as the honorable in the mansion for her orders must be followed even with
Ermi. She does not treat her as her own blood runs to her.
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JoselitO ROJO

The homosexual youngest among the siblings who is also the businessman uncle of Ermi. He loves
to sell and buy lands when he sees opportunities. He got to American Army forces where his
sisters remain questionably inquiring him.

He is good in management for he wanted to be the richest businessman in the country. There
comes a time that his saliva wandered around his mouth when he sees Mac in the mansion, and
so diverted himself to Ermi whom he molested but not raped in his room.

_Servants_

Arturo

He is the honest and loyal driver of the Rojos since Don Manuel hired him. He is a loving husband
to Orand and father to his children.

He serves as the informant of Rojo sisters during the Occupation. He is also responsible of planting
vegetable in the garden when their supplies have been locked down. He tried to protect Conching
before she was raped by a soldier entered their house when he was shot by him.

At the latter part of the story his family had been thrown away by Rojos and lived tentatively
before Ermi turns to be a high class prostitute.

Orang

She is quiet stout when she first came to Ermita and became a loving and ever supportive wife of
Arturo.She cooks for the Rojos and lives in the garage with her family. She gave birth to Macarthur
a week before Ermi was born.

At the latter part of the story, she became the chef in the restaurant of Ermi, “Puesto” with her
daughter being helper of her. She makes sure that Ermi takes her nutritious food regularly and
has prepared the things needed for Ermi. She owes her a lot for she sends her children to school
and gives them a better life than Rojos.

But deep inside her heart, she pities Ermi for what she is doing in her life; she can do nothing with
that.

Macarthur

Smart son of Arturo and Orang. He is a close friend of Ermi and at the latter part of the story
reveals his love for her. He makes sure that Ermi is always in safe through spying her to wherever
she goes which annoys Ermi.

He became successful engineer through the help of Ermi. Determined to be rich in order to pay
his family’s debts to her. He has the ability to control his feelings to her which hurts her much.

Nanet

She is the daughter of Arturo. She loves to cook which she inherited from her mother and later
on studies her degree in culinary at one of the prestigious schools in Manila.

Her character is static in the story and often can be found in the kitchen.
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_Friends of Ermi_

Rolando Cruz (ROLY)

Former Professor of History and a frequent customer of Camarin Bar and Restaurant. He is a
dedicated friend of Ermi who is lofty of his vision but strictly earthbound in his resources. He was
able to go to University of the Philippines only because his ailing father had sold their seven-
hectare farm in Pangasinan and packed off to live with an aunt in Manila.

He is the first customer of Ermi but cannot afford her and so just do talking to her. He is the one
who recommends Great Man to Ermi whom she started to earn a lot more than she expects and
imagine.

He commits suicide at the latter part of the story using his .45 caliber. He got divorced from his
first wife and also once a prostitute. He has deeply love Ermi but more to protect her and his
morality.

Didi GamBOA
Owner of Camarin Bar and Restaurant. She is a lesbian sister of Alice, classmate of Ermi at Assumption.
She is the one who helps Ermi on how to be good in her customers. She treats her special and let her
decide for who, where, and when she wants table his customer.

At the end of the story, she chooses to close the Camarin and start a new life from which Ermi says her
so. Her office at the bar smells strong coffee, cigarette and stingy smoke of marijuana.

_Ermi's Customers_

The Great Man

The Prime Minister of an Asian country; considered one of the richest men in Asia. He is in his late sixties
when he became the first client of Ermi. His face was always warm and kindly in his age, tall and balding.
He cares for her when he noticed her miserable past and willing to let go the pleasure of the night for he
pities her.

Before he dies, he gives her shares on his companies, buys her house at Forbes Park, buys her luxury cars,
and names her bank accounts. He also opens the world to Ermi having her in different countries.

Senator Andres Bravo

He is one of the customers of Ermi who was close to fifty and often found in a dark linen suit which made
him look all the more baleful, like some Mafioso in the shadows. He was quite good-looking with a bit of
simian features of the northerners, a sensual mouth, a wide forehead over which a forelock always
dropped. He was married of course, but as a politician, it did not harm him as he was known to have
several women.

He is desperate in the body of Ermi and so once, he drugged her and brought her to a five-star hotel. He
is known to be direct about things he wants to say. He sends Ermi to Japan and Hongkong to please her
and gives her diamond ring.

Eduardo Dantes
Determined customer of Ermi. He is in his late thirties when he meets her at the plane heading to
California. He accompanies her there and gives her necessities to her in which she refuses for has
thousands of dollars in her bag.
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He is an owner of network of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations. He pursued Ermi
dedicatedly and offers her an emerald ring from which she refuses. He is still a loving father and husband
to his family but he was really attracted to her waiting a year to have her.

_Others_

Sister Constancia (Tancing)

She is the head of orphanage the took care and educated of the child Ermi. She became a mother to her
who pities her much.

General Bombilla
One of the pursuers of Ermi but remain an honest man who became Marcos' man. He is said to be an
executioner, maltreater, and the Hitler of the country and so Didi and Roly advised her to get far from
him.

He is kind to in needs especially when he has something he can do. He helped Ermi to put down Felicitas
Rojo regarding owning of lands in Negros and Nueva Ecija.

Anita
Aging prostitute that Ermi saved from poverty. She pays back Ermi for becoming the head of the Puesto.
She is always afraid of what will happen to her daughter when she knows that she is a prostitute.

Lily
A daughter of Anita who became anti-Marcos in her early teens. She confesses to Ermi of the things she
needed to do for the sake of the countrymen. She is really brave and has a courage to face the reality that
kills many people of the land, where Ermi and Mac envied her.

She packed herself and join the rebellion and was killed later on.

Miss Simplicia Honorato

Literature teacher of Ermi at Assumption from which she finds her subject soul satisfying. She is the one
who enlightens Ermi about prostitution. She was in her early thirties and had written two books in
Philippine Literature. She was dark and skinny like an electric post and wore a boy’s bob. Her nose was
flat and her whole demeanor was all the more renedered homely by her clothes which were so frowzily
cut through they were expensive linens.

Andrew Meadows
American businessman who admires Ermi. He is a year divorced to his wife when he marries Ermi and live
at United States. He is gentle and kind to her never revealing her past and throwing bad words onto her
face. A perfect and ideal man for a type of Ermi but after three years of being together, they apply for
divorce for she cannot really stay unfair to him.
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Summary
In 1941, Japanese Occupation was in rage. Many people were killed, raped, suffered, and some
others were cannot be found. That is the mark of being in war. It is unimaginable.

Conchita is very tired of his three years suffering under the Occupation. She is with her elder sister
Felicitas who long waits for the general to arrive and save them. Joselito his youngest brother is
away to join Army. They still have Orang and Alejandra as their maids since their parents are alive.
Arturo the family’s driver serves as the provider and informant about the coming of Japanese
soldiers. He never gets tired of digging soil to plants vegetables for them to eat. Being in a Rojo
family is really tiring but he owes them a lot for his father worked for them and continue to trust
them.

Until one time, soldiers crossed the Pasig river and approaching Ermita, where their mansion
stands. Nightmare encompassed their house. Conchita decided to remain in her room which she
was raped by a soldier but she was able to kill him. Arturo who tries to respond her was shot but
not severe. Felicitas and the rest were able to hide at the ground Arturo has prepared when such
instance came.

Conchita got pregnant and decided to bear it in an orphanage and leave the responsibility of her
daughter there. She names her daughter “Ermita” and marries John Collier and lives at California.
She never came back to Manila to see Ermi. Rojos provided the needs of Ermi in orphanage
managed by Sister Constancia.

Ermita or Ermi grows up among the nuns and she is happy and hopeful that she will soon be
adopted ... until she discovers the reason why she is passed over until her teenage years: she is
the daughter of the Rojo family. She threatens the nuns that she will run away, to seek out her
mother and this forces her aunt, Felicitas, to take her in.

Living in Rojo mansion is never easy for her. She is instructed by Felicitas not to own her surname
for she will never be. She will sleep at the garage with her own room and instructed the maids to
serve her. She attends Assumption for her studies where she learns fast and discovers something
she can do to handle money for she never has had.

Joselito Rojo went home to check on his sister’s condition. He is homosexual and wants to taste
MacArthur, the son of Arturo and Orang. He calls him to his room and when he cannot afford to
have him being slave, he orders him to call Ermi. He orders her to remove clothes from which she
shivered on. She was not raped by him but pay her fifty pesos and told her that she can make a
lot of money out of that pussy.

Ermi asks Miss Hotoranto, her literature teacher of what is pussy all about then she was teased
and laughed by her classmates. There she knows Alice Gamboa. She has a lesbian sister Didi who
owns a bar and know more about pussy. The topic now focuses on prostitution, its effects in the
country. She searched on different books deal about prostitution and learn about it more.

It is near to her graduation when she decided to seek some help to her aunt Felicitas at Forbes
Park. She denies her for her not to control her anger revealing all that she knows about her origin.
Fely got mad and sends them away to the streets.

It is when Ermi proceeds to Didi at Camarin and becomes prostitute. Her price is ten thousand
claimed by others that it is equal to a year compensation of a clear. 50/50 is the negotiation
between Ermi and Didi. She meets Rolando Cruz whom she became friends till the end and
introduces her first client, the Great Man who pays Didi full.
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They went to Baguio for days and it is the first time that Ermi rode into a Mercedes and visited
Northern Luzon. She narrates her story to him resulting for have pity on her. He is willing to let go
of the pleasure that night but she manages to seduce him and had her first experience in bed.
She does all the working as what Great Man said in the morning. Their relationship went intimate.
She accompanies him in his acupuncture treatment at Hongkong and others at Japan and now
she owns house in Forbes Park, shares in the companies of Great Man in the country, different
wide lands in many provinces and line of luxury cars.

It is the time for revenge she thought but for her, it is not still enough. She rents an apartment for
Arturo and his family; she lives together with them. She built house at Cubao, sold the house at
Forbes Park and shares in companies and establish restaurant. She sends Macarthur at La Salle,
he studied his engineering there and Nenita the youngest daughter of Orang and Arturo pursues
her love in cooking. Arturo had his left eye loss of vision and so he manages gardening at the
house and restaurant. He is really good at it.

She goes back at Camarin and knows Senator Andres Bravo. He is an influential man and continues
to shower Ermi of luxury gifts and decided to drug Ermi to have her body. She can’t imagine the
things that she just did to him but was able to swallow them. And so heading to her mother at
California, she meets a businessman Eduardo Dantes who accompanies her at San Francisco. He
is also a good pursuer for her.

She is able to locate John Collier and her mother Conchita. She seduced him and revealed that
she is Ermi, daughter of his wife at a Japanese soldier. She called her mother up and revealed that
she just seduced her husband. She feels lifted at this moment. She cannot explain the happiness
rushing into her veins and now she is dedicated to have Joselito and Felicitas next.

Upon arriving at Manila, she talks frequently to Rolando Cruz who is being straight to her that she
is doing is not to be addressed as “to make love” but “to fuck” which slapped onto her face. He
always reminds her that she is still young and can go out of that living anytime she wants because
she can afford the living she is used to.

When she came home, she searched for Mac who is now seldom talks to him. She is worried for
him and she missed him much. Mac is always straight to her slapping to her face that is a hatred
greedy living thing, she is not a woman he used to know. He loves her from they were teens he
didn’t just notice it. He cares for her that he used to follow her at Camarin and checks who is with
her and where they go next. Ermi has also this feeling that she does not if love or just care for he
is a family to her. He begs her to stop but she refuses, all the time.

Ermi is now planning her revenge to Joselito. She bought the house at Padre Faura from which
she lived and turns it to be a hotel exclusively for Camarin customers only and gave this to Didi
as a gift.

She now needs the help of Didi. Didi finds a deserving young and fresh man to seduce Joselito
and wrecks his personality form head to toe. She succeeded to it that Joselito gives in and checked
in to a five-star hotel with the young guy she paid a partial of fifty thousand. And at the morning,
newspapers rain the information about Joselito who accused his partner of rape but the guy
insisted that it is part of the deal between them. He was sent to hospital for he has internal
bleeding in his anus and his penis also bleeding. He has been humiliated with his public and
business figure all over the country and needs medication for three months. Palso Perrera, a
columnist is the one responsible for the spreading of news and he is a friend to Ermi.
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She turns now to Felicitas and General Bombillia was her great help. She sends properties of
Felicitas to him and make those as government property. Her bank accounts have been hacked
by Senator Andy for he is a chairman of bank.

Ermi has this satisfying feeling in the beginning of his every revenge. She feels fulfilled that she
was able to send Rojos in hell. And she did it all because of being a high class prostitute.

She then decided to settle her life and married Andrew Meadows a friend of Rody and an
American businessman. He accepted everything to her. Rody is in pain this time for he truly loves
Ermi much. They went together before she said yes to Andrew. How long she waited to make love
to him but he controlled his feelings. But at the end Ermi and Rody gave up the feelings that kill
them for she thought that she will at last have her first orgasm but she failed.

After marrying Andrew, they live at United States where she studied her masters at Humanities
and after three years, decided to have divorce when she knew that Rolando Cruz has died. Andrew
let her go freely. How she wanted to have a child but she cannot think of the reason why she can’t
have one at least. She suspects that it is a suicide, and she knew it. She realizes by the help of her
teacher what is really the meaning of “happiness” which until now, she is not sure if she was really
able to have it.

She went back at Manila to her house at Cubao with Arturo and the rest but there is still something
missing and she does not know it. Maybe a child whom she can show passionate love of being a
mother that she did not receive from her own blood. She is alone, she feels it. She is just puzzled
why Mac did not appear to her face even before she came. She is not going to his home to
confront him; she is so mad. On her way, she decided to visit the orphanage where she grew up
ten years ago. She met sister Constancia who suffered from stroke and has a selected memory
loss. She approached the sister knowing for her Ermi was dead.

She now goes to the apartment of Mac. She found him there, packing. She tries to stop him from
leaving but she failed even that she shout onto his face that she wanted to have child in him. He
stopped for a while but proceed on going away stating, “I have to make my future my way. I must
come to you with something more than gratitude-oh, I cannot repay you enough, Ermi-it may
take forever…” (p.318)

She stopped crying and said that she is willing to wait for him, even forever.

Themes
Revenge

Ermi as the major character in the story has a purpose of living – revenge. She lives ten years at
an orphanage without knowing her origin and confused why there is no one who attempts to
adopt her considering that she is truly a mestiza.

She makes everything possible driven by her desire to send the Rojos in hell. She never feels
satisfaction in her desire until all the people who make her life miserable will crawl for her
forgiveness.

She sends her mother in miserable standing seducing her husband and revealing the past of her
mother to him. There is no forgiveness for what she did. She also drives Joselito in his shameful
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being sending him bait that he will not ever resist. There is no forgiveness for what she did. She
delivers Felicitas to her worst nightmare that she can ever imagine, all of her properties turn to
ashes. There is no forgiveness for what she did.

Ermi was able to do things she can’t ever think of. Devil arises from the hell and embraces her.
She did this for the fate seems not so good to her. She envies all the children with complete family
that she never experienced. Her identity is written in the air that she can never read.

Prostitution

The prologue of the novel reveals the name of the prostitute a history teacher once fantasized.
She is Ermita, not the place but a girl with no acceptable origin. She is a product of shame and
ended up the same.

She started the work since she was twenty, still a virgin and sold her flesh to a man in his sixties.
This pushes her to continue the job reminded that she has the right of what she wants to do in
her body because this is hers. She can give flesh to anyone she likes and no one can stop her. She
is just working, maybe a work not accepted by society now.

She makes connections buy selling her flesh, she makes properties by offering her service, and
she makes the men chase her by driving them crazy over her skills – that is Ermi. She is dedicated
to her work being a prostitute through enriching her knowledge in reading magazines, books, and
pages, even Kama Sutra, she mastered it.

All through the story, it focuses on how she manages being a prostitute without men having
advantage of her.

There is Didi, a lesbian who is exposed in the nature of job, there is Roly who is a teacher but once
sold his flesh also. It showcases that prostitution can be acted by anyone, even if how professional
you are, even if how high your status is. It can be embraced by anyone who wants to be one.

Immorality

Others might believe that those who are in higher positons have their morality crystal clear for
they were idolized by some. I disagree.

Jose was able to expose the dirt of those high ranker through giving them characters in this novel.
The in and out transactions are detailed in a way that the author was able to either experienced it
or observed it.

Generals, senators, publishers, educators, even prime ministers and other political officials are well
involved in such kind of doing. It is one of what we inherited from the colonizers-to have pleasure
with the use of women because they were the ones who will send you in a feeling of extremity
and lifelessness, heaven they say.

Furthermore, in the very beginning of the story, anomalies address immorality in the family of
Rojos. They own lands through dirty businesses with dirty officials. Felicitas marries a rich
sportsman and later on committed suicide knowing that she is no longer a virgin and she has this
intimate affection to the general. Rojo can make impossible things be possible with the use of
fishy connections.
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Dehumanization

The beginning of the story revolves in the characteristics of Rojos-hoe they treat people around
them. Conchita was able to vomit her own blood not to stain the reputation she has in her
husband. She was able to go away out of her own daughter and denied the fact the she is a
mother. They stole away the identity of Ermi.

When the greatest secret has been slapped by the face of Fely, he sends her servants in the street
not thinking how these people will live for they all depend on their compensation in serving her.
She accepts Ermi in the house but treated her no one.

Affection

Ermi believes that she is still a virgin even if hundreds of men crawl over her. She is still a virgin
for she never gives her heart to anyone - the reason why she still not experience orgasm.
Even if Ermi is just a prostitute, she is able to manage her clients taking no advantage of her.
Letting them fall to her with her charismatic presence and knowledge of languages are her
greatest advantages among the other slut there at Camarin.

This develops her clients’ affection towards her. She is not just after the money; she also cares for
them. In the side of Ermi it is one of her tricks.

Above the dirt of her job, she is affectionate in the family who took care of her, in the orphanage
who adopted her, raise her for being a slender woman and more so for Roly who gives her paternal
care from which he sees in Arturo and for Mac whom she shares her youth now gone because of
her doings. That might be her fate after all.

Settings
Padre Faura, Ermita

The first setting of the story where the house of Rojos stands. It is the opening place where conflict
arises, the Japanese Occupation reached this place and left a nightmare that Rojos cannot accept.

The house of the Rojo also became a hotel exclusive only for the Camarin customers. This place
brings a lot of memories to Ermi which she wanted to fade.

Camarin Bar and Restaurant

This is the place which open opportunities for Ermi. It is the center setting of the story where Ermi
learns a lot and becomes what she is now in the story. She cannot forget Camarin whom Didi
managed and so going but not staying there.

Hongkong

It is the first country Ermi visited when the Great Man had his acupuncture. She collects memories
here with the Great Man. Whenever she visits Hongkong, she was always reminded of the
memories she shared with him.
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Japan

It is where she had a night with the senator and met different big personalities whom she used at
her revenge in the latter part.

California

It is where her mother Conchita lives and delivers her in miserable life she can imagine. It is really
her destination for her first revenge where Eduardo Dantes accompanied her.

Cubao

It is where she builds her own house accompanied by Arturo and his family.

Orphanage

It is managed by Sister Constancia, the one who stands as her mother in her ten years of exixtence.

Analysis: moral perspective

In the entire history in any part of the world, women perceive that until now, they remain the
victims of both direct and indirect forms of male oppression. When thinking about trades that
have been around for years, prostitution is not the first that comes to mind, yet it is claimed to be
one of the oldest professions. The practice of prostitution in society is believed to boost this [male
oppression] style of oppression. But F. Sionil Jose’s great work of fiction, Ermita: A Filipino Novel
shows that a prostitute has all the right in the world to be a protagonist and at the same time,
turn the tables.

The novel is set on the Philippines in the year 1941, distinctly depicts how the Filipinos suffer the
effects of Word War II and of returning to their elite lifestyles before the declaration of Martial
Law particularly the Rojo family. It is believable because of the author’s detailed description of the
designs and customs of the time in which Ermita lives

Ermita, a prostitute, not only due to her ill fate but by choice, a choice driven by the
disappointment over a mother she never had and an ultimate desire to take revenge on her
biological family who abandoned her. She became the center of the story and her doings a center
for debate.

As beautiful people, women are examples of how society treats human beings as a property, a
property to be displayed and exploited. It also displays images of women as housewives,
prostitutes and women with no political power. One of a woman’s jobs in this society is to be an
alluring sexual object; clothes and make-up are tools of the trade. “’You will drive many men crazy,
Ermi. Your body is gorgeous…’”(p. 96)

Immorality accompanies revenge. Morality attempts to bring reason and fairness to the world, but
it is a struggle. As some men still see women as their property or an object to be manipulated.
Ermi was one of those who are being manipulated and molested by the society without morality
and what interesting in part of her is that she did the same and reverse what is should be.

Immorality really encompasses the whole story, started when the Japanese soldier reduced
Conchita into a piece of merchandise. “The crazed eyes blinked with disbelief, perhaps, than
 P a g e | 12

animal hunger. He advanced and Conchita cringed, back against the wall. With one swift motion,
he tore away her dress…”(p.19)

The same thing goes for what Senator Bravo did to Ermi. He drugged and raped her. “’I drugged
you, yes,’ he admitted, still smiling. ‘But I did not rape you. You were very conscious through it all.
You were even very explicit with your instructions.’”(p.132) Even though prostitutes let men use
their body in exchange for money, it doesn’t mean that they are unrapeable. No matter how we
look at it, rape is still a rape.

Although the novel focuses on the 1940s, it deals with the common weakness of man. It is a moral
commentary against Ermita: A Filipino Novel as shown in hatred, unfaithfulness and hypocrisy.

In the course of the story, the other characters begin to realize their mistakes and question their
actions except for Ermi, who is still blinded by her hatred in the middle part of the book. For her,
it is not about the money. Yes, she is a prostitute, but is never about the money, it is about revenge.
“’Let us see who is weak! You have not heard the last of your daughter…’”(p.154) She is a victim,
but in the end, she victimized herself.

The book ends with Ermi wanting a second chance in life and love. “I will wait, Mac. If that is what
you want. Maybe forever, but I can wait…”(p.323) But is left hanging by her true love, Mac, who
although loves her, but can’t seem to accept all the things that happened. He is grateful for her
help but he also wants to prove his worth by earning a lot of money . “I have to make my future
my way. I must come to you with something more than my gratitude – oh, I cannot repay you
more than enough, Ermi, – it may take forever…”(322)

Reflection
As what depicted by the novel, women are to be blamed for prostitution because it is not the
men’s fault they were being seduced, which is still the case to some people nowadays. The fact is,
sex work sells and prostitution continues to grow. But why has prostitution been allowed to
continue? The answer is simple: men.

Although it is viewed as immoral activity committed by not just women, the trade is still on going.
Money is a source of pleasure by many and so others ready to waste their body to have it.

I believe that what leads to prostitution is nothing but poverty. Female prostitution afflicts women,
not because some women who engage themselves in it “suffer in the eyes of society” but because
its organized practice testifies to socially prevailing beliefs, which abuse all women in many
domains of their lives.